Ok so maybe things have temporarily come to an all out stop. It has rained here the past couple of days. When I say it rained, it should read more like- It. Downright. POURED!
Last night as I left work, I was a bit excited. The power had gone out for an hour in the afternoon. Then it came back on and went out just before time to close up and go home. We actually got to leave 20 minutes early... Hooray!
It had poured on us a couple times throughout the day. Rain, pour, stop, pour, pour, pour, stop, rain, sprinkle, pour... It was nice, I am not complaining, but sheesh. It was actually in the low 70's and I had worn a sweatshirt in the morning. I don't like being cold, can anyone tell?
The weather channel and online weather service websites spoke of heavy thunder storms and mentioned tornado warnings. How is that for comparison to some other areas of the planet? As I loaded my stuff in the truck to leave I looked up to see a mass of gray/green clouds blowing in from the southeast. All day it had been dark skies out to the west... But as I drove away and reached the end of the street, the skies unleashed on us again.
It had started to hail! Pretty good sized chunks of ice hit the street and smashed to bits. It also pelted the truck so hard I could not hear the person on the other end of the cell phone, even with my hands free ear buds in... The rain, hail and wind was so bad I could barely see past the end of the hood of the truck. I had turned right into the storm and had to either sit and wait it out or trudge forward and go home.
Not only was the rain and golf ball sized hail pelting and beating the truck and windshield, there were pieces of tree branches flying past- good sized branches mind you, debris from the road and nearby houses in the neighborhood... I just hoped the windshield and windows in the truck held up. The windows on the building next door at work- they didn't! Every one of them is broken or has several holes in them.
It took me several minutes to drive the two short blocks to the railroad tracks. I stopped for a minute there. The power was out at work when I left. I couldn't see if a train was coming or not and wondered if one did, would the warning lights go on, arms come down and anyone know? I decided to go for it and hit the gas pedal. Not too hard- don't want to loose traction and not get over the tracks quickly...
Once on the other side, as I came up to the traffic light, it seemed everyone was sitting on the side of the road waiting it out. At least the road was clear and I was able to get through. Getting on the freeway was another interesting feat. Some of the traffic had pulled off to the side- both on the right and left sides... At least nobody was blocking the ramp. There were several drivers pushing on and going forward so I joined them. All of the semi's had their hazard lights on as they plowed through the water on the freeway in front of me.
About 4 miles down the road I had made it out of the storm. The wind was still blowing, but the hail had stopped, the rain was a slight drizzle and I could actually see where I was going again. I still had to stop and get hay, feed when I got home, unload the truck and go inside to cook dinner for the girls. Although I had left early, I still got home late. Not sure how that works, but hey. At least I made it home.
While eating dinner the weather kicked it up again. This time though at least I wasn't outside in it. The wind blew our one wind chime to a horizontal position and the rain all the way up under the porch to the point the front windows were wet half way up.
We might live in the desert, might not get rain that often, but when we do... Mother Nature sure throws a hell of a party!
